Illinois lawmakers mull school vouchers for Chicago Public Schools

Illinois lawmakers mull school vouchers for Chicago Public Schools

Price Elementary School was not Quintella Johnson's first choice for
her daughter.

She wanted Kerisma to attend a nearby charter school, but a long wait
list forced her to enroll the 12-year-old at Price, a neighborhood
school struggling with some of Chicago's lowest test scores.

"I had to send her to the first school available," said Johnson, who
recently moved to Kenwood. "She could be doing better. She's not
failing, but she's borderline."

Mothers such as Johnson soon could have a few more options. Landmark
school voucher legislation working its way through the Capitol would
allow children to transfer from city elementary schools that rank in the
bottom 10 percent in district test scores to private and parochial
schools. Some students in the most overcrowded schools in high-poverty
areas also would be eligible.

The students each would take about $3,700 in state money with them, a
key element in a pilot program aimed to begin in fall 2011 that's meant
to set up competition for public schools.

As currently drawn, the change could impact up to 30,000 of the 400,000
or so Chicago Public Schools students. At that size, Chicago would be
embarking on the largest voucher program in the nation, education
experts say.

Once a hot topic in Illinois, this year's push is the first time in 14
years that school voucher legislation is gaining traction in
Springfield. An unlikely alliance of suburban Republicans and city
Democrats has given new life to the controversial issue.

"It's rare when a piece of legislation is half Democrat and half
Republican," said Sen. James Meeks, the South Side Democrat who leads a
large African-American congregation at Salem Baptist Church. "It's
Latino, it's black and it's white. Usually legislation, especially
controversial legislation, does not get passed that way."

While Meeks pushed the voucher bill through the Senate with a few votes
to spare, it still faces hurdles. Teachers unions are vehemently
opposed. They argue that public money should not go to private schools
and say students left behind could suffer.

"It makes no sense to us that at a time when the state cannot meet its
current obligation to schools … that we would want to divert as much as a
dollar into private schools," said Ken Swanson, head of the Illinois
Education Association.

What's telling is that so far, district CEO Ron Huberman, who works for
Mayor Richard Daley, hasn't turned thumbs-down. The district is offering
advice on how the bill should be shaped.

Even if it's signed into law, one challenge to testing the voucher
approach in Illinois is likely to come from a surprising source: the
families it's meant to help.

Parents might not be able to pay the balance if the $3,700 does not
cover a tab that also could include the cost of getting to and from the
new school. Tuition varies widely among private and parochial schools in
the city — from about $2,000 to nearly $30,000 a year. The average
tuition and fees for elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago is
about $3,300 a year, a spokesman said. The most expensive private
schools often give financial assistance to disadvantaged students, which
makes it difficult to know what the actual cost is for parents.

More fundamentally, finding out what school options are available could
be a challenge for many attending the lowest-performing schools.

But even if she did, Wilson isn't sure she'd send her kids there. She
fears the bill would leave the remaining children at Price with fewer
resources, yet she likes the idea of options. They give her leverage in
her role as a local school council member.

"If the school doesn't take my ideas and figure out ways to use them, I
may have to see about those other options," she said, giggling.

Vouchers have long been a controversial topic, and research is mixed on
how effective they are at improving student performance.

Test score data show African Americans have benefited from voucher
programs while whites and Latinos have not, said William Howell, a
professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago
and an expert on vouchers.

"I don't think we should see vouchers as a panacea. … But when you look
at the evidence, on the whole there is enough to believe that they
certainly aren't going to hurt, and may do good for urban residents,"
Howell said.

Voucher proposals have surfaced in Springfield for decades but were
leapfrogged by school experimentation such as charter schools and
tuition tax credits for parents who send children to private schools.

This year, Sen. Dan Cronin, R-Elmhurst, gave impassioned pleas to
colleagues that Chicago needs vouchers to help get children out of
gang-infested schools.

"This gives families a chance to take some ownership in education of
their children," said Cronin, who led the last voucher push in 1996.

Meeks wants an income tax increase to provide more money for schools,
but he views the voucher measure as relief until then.

"Voucher programs will simply open up an opportunity to those kids in
failing or overcrowded schools," said Meeks, who on Sunday hosted
several suburban Republican lawmakers at his church.

The legislation is pending in the House, where Rep. Kevin Joyce,
D-Chicago, tried to head off potential opposition by adding amendments
to ensure the voucher funding would not represent new state money for
Chicago schools or drain money from suburban or downstate schools. The
Chicago school district would get to keep locally raised property taxes.

The staunch opposition of teachers unions remains in place, however.

David Piccioli, a lobbyist for the Chicago Teachers Union and the
Illinois Federation of Teachers, warned the constitutionality of the law
could be challenged over the use of public funds for private and
parochial schools. Rulings are mixed, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld
vouchers in a Cleveland case that proponents rally around.

Joyce said the legislation would pass legal muster because the voucher
money would go to the parents first.

Whatever the case, the vote in the House this week is expected to be
close.

"If it works," said Rep. Ed Sullivan, R-Mundelein, "we're back to what
I'm talking about: It's about the kids."

Comments

OPPOSED to the school vouchers. One of the problems with this city and state is they apply band-aids in attempt to fix the problems. To fix the problem is to fix CPS - fix the schools (build new if you have to) get rid of the fluff at the top, get rid of non-producing teachers. It's not that difficut to see that CPS needs a complete overhaul but no one has the courage to make this happen. Most of our politicians are corrupt and they take care of only who takes care of them. It doesn't take a genius to see that we have 7 really good high schools in this city, that doesn't even come close to match the amount of hs students there are. When is this madness going to end. We need to hold our politicans accountable for the mess they have made of our city and state.

All 50 aldermen on the Chicago City Council had to file paperwork earlier this year detailing their outside income and gifts. The Tribune took that ethics paperwork and posted the information here for you to see. You can search by ward number or alderman's last name.

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